Not So Little Any More
by KingAlanI
Summary: By Alan Gilfoy in the world of Suzanne Collins. A young man reflects on his older brother and girlfriend. Gale's Hunger Games from Rory's perspective, mostly past-tense.


**Not So Little Anymore**

By Alan Gilfoy in the world of Suzanne Collins. A young man reflects on his older brother and girlfriend. Gale's Hunger Games from Rory's perspective, mostly past-tense.

Rated T, Genre 1 Romance, Genre 2 Family, Character 1 Rory H., Character 2 Primrose E.

**A/N**

I happened to be working on an action/war chapter right now, Fanning The Flames Chapter 4. Here's something romantic for Valentine's Day, some Rory/Prim fluff I had been planning to write.

**Chapter**

One could look up to men a lot worse than Gale Thomas Hawthorne. My older brother had always been there, especially since our father died in the mines. We had been close even before Dad died. One of the first things I remember was him saying "I'm pushin' ten years old. I sure am glad to meet you. Let me show you stuff that only big boys know. Mom said you're the reason her belly got so big. I didn't believe it till she let me feel you kick. Then it happened again with Vick." I must have been barely four.

I hadn't remembered Vick being born, but I did remember with Posy – how could you forget? Even people as tough as Gale and Mommy cry when something really sad happens like Daddy being gone, that's how I learned that, but everybody was really happy to see Posy. "Daddy's really gone?," Vick was still wailing.

But he smiled when Mommy walked in with the baby and said "Do you boys want to hold your little sister?" As she handed the infant to Vick and he played with the tiny little arms, I think we were remotely happy for the first time since the explosion.

Me, Vick and Posy called Gale 'Big Man' because he got so tall so quickly. He responded by calling me 'Little Man', and it stuck for both of us.

He faced his seventh reaping without fear, which is how I learned to face my first. I had followed his example in so many areas and would continue to do so in so many others. I should not have been surprised when he took my place in the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen was a similarly devoted older _sister_. Her teamwork with my brother in the years leading up to this had saved all of us before they saved two of us in particular. We hoped the odds would be ever in their favor. I had drawn a picture of us which I'd forgotten about in the confusion of Reaping Day, but before he went away I remembered it and gave it to him to wear into the arena.

Vick and I thought the outfits were awesome! Posy clapped and smiled at seeing Gale again, even though he was only on a screen and on fire.

In his interview, Gale showed the country what most of District 12 already knew. In the square, I was the loudest of the many cheering faces. The only people to shut up were the schoolgirl crowd, when Gale announced his love for Katniss.

Gale often gladly gave us his opinion of the Capitol. This time, they could not publicly get away with the cruelty they had so often managed.

I knew Gale and Katniss could win the battle at the beginning of the Games, and I knew they'd be so happy to see each other after it! I was only a little boy, but I still knew what weddings looked like. The man and the woman heated bread together – they wrote on special paper at the Justice Building, and there was other clothes, and other food, but making that crispy bread with each other is what really counted, everybody said. And we all saw Gale and Katniss do that at dinner the first night in the arena. Big Man had girls all over him, but I didn't think he would pick one – and marry her – this quickly. He had spent so much time with Katniss, but not the way other boys and girls spent time together, so I wasn't sure if his special girl was going to be her.

Above everything, I wanted Gale back and Prim wanted Katniss back. We each could have been happy for the other's good fortune, but the whole country was shocked when we both got our wish. We were sure they'd be the two to win together.

At that point something changed. The object of Katniss' affection became the object of my affection. Prim had an infectiously positive personality, even in these circumstances, and I gamely tried to match her smiles. Fate had brought us closer together. As we sat under the moonlight waiting, my left hand gripped her right. There was magic in those delicate and nimble fingers. "Have you ever had a boy tell you you're cute?," I said as I played with one of her braided ponytails.

"No," she answered.

"Well, I just did, you cutie," I said as I grinned. And so the little angel kissed me for the first time, right after The Announcement. I think she just meant to brush my cheeks, but our lips definitely touched.

Katniss hadn't been in the schoolgirl crowd – I think Gale couldn't stand those idiots, however pretty they were. Evidently I couldn't either. In some ways, Katniss and Prim were as different as night and day, but they both had minds with a razor sharpness.

I ran to their house the next morning. Prim was thinking the same thing, and ran out to meet me. This time our lips definitely touched on purpose. I was starting to see why Gale liked doing this so much. "Why did Katniss wait so long? This is fun!," Prim wondered. Gale had liked doing this to a lot of girls, but so far, I was happy with just the Little Duck. I thought the ducktail of her shirt hanging out of her skirt waistband was one of the many adorable things about her.

"quack," I joked in a quiet voice that evening.

"I really know why Katniss likes Gale so much, you're cute and clever too," Prim said, barely able to stop talking. Our lips touched again. The boys at school had called Gale 'King Of The Slag Heap' because of all the girls he took there before he met Katniss. I guess that made me the prince. He hadn't found his queen until that day in the woods and it took him a bit of time to figure that out, but I think I had already found my princess.

The rumors had spread at least amongst our family. "Don't you know girls are icky?," Vick teased.

"No they aren't, not anymore," I told him. "This one certainly isn't."

"Apparently two of my boys both love Everdeen girls," Mommy had said. I opened my mouth to say something back, but I hesitated at the word – it is an important word, after all. "Oh, you're making it clear - Prim this, Prim that."

Well then, I'd tell her! "Most girls really like hearing that," Gale had told me before.

"So tell Katniss," I had said back. "I know you think about her like that."

"Katniss is different, so I have to be careful," I think he had said.

I wouldn't wait as long as he had. I couldn't wait to see Prim again so I could tell her! I walked over to her house to go to school with her. "Little Duck, I think I love you."

"I'm pretty sure I love you too, Little Man." We kissed again. I did something I had seen Gale do – hold the girl and play with her hair, to be even closer to her. I was pretty sure her mommy was looking out the window smiling at us. Maybe we weren't so little any more.

That day was Vick's 11th birthday, and I was going to go to the bakery to get him something sweet. Mom had given me a few brown coins soon before that probably to do that with. Of course I had to go there with Prim. A lot of people smiled when they saw the two of us walking together. One of the baker's sons was selling things that day, and I think he gave me more than he should have for those few coins. "I drew that on the cookies myself," he said.

As we were walking to my house, I broke off one of those sugary yellow petals to feed to my little angel. She gave me a piece of one of the red ones. We licked the crumbs off each others' lips. "No wonder most boys and girls think this is sweet," I told her.

"Rory, you're so sweet even when you don't have cookies," she laughed. We did have some cookies left for Vick, Posy and our mommies.

I had been wondering about something and wanted to ask Mommy about it. "Prim's hair is yellow, but everyone else's is dark," I said.

"Her mommy has light hair too," she answered. "A lot of the people from town do."

"But why are they over here? Who'd want to live over here when they could live in one of those nice houses?," I wondered.

"Her mommy used to live there, but she moved because she really loved Prim and Katniss' daddy. Love makes people do lots of crazy things, so watch yourself, Little Man."

"Well, if their daddy was as awesome as our daddy was, no wonder she did that," I thought aloud.

"Rory, that's so sweet. Their mommy used to be very pretty, so no wonder he did that, and since Prim looks so much like her, I can see why you like her so much."

Katniss wasn't the only one to have the little girl from Eleven remind them of Prim. Such a sweet young lady, and all that. A lot of people were sad when Rue died, and cried even more when Katniss put flowers over her before the plane took her away, and my little angel was one of them. However, I was used to my angry older brother, and could only think of how cruel it was for them to be sent there in the first place.

We all saw that the boy from District Two loved the girl from District One, but it couldn't be quite like how Gale loved Katniss after their years getting food for us in the woods, and it looked like my amazing older brother was able to both outsmart and outfight them. I would be so happy to see him and my new sister-in-law again, and Katniss would be so happy to see how good I made her Little Duck feel.


End file.
